258 
DR, A. GUNTHER ON GIGANTIC LAND-TORTOISES. 
mated at 2000 head, beside wild pigs, goats, and dogs. . . . The wild dogs keep the goats 
and pigs very much down ” (vol. i. p. 57) ; but “ no turpin, or terrapin, are living on this 
island ” (p. 59) ; that is, the Tortoises had been exterminated between the visits of the 
‘ Beagle ’ and the ‘ Herald.’ On Chatham Island “ we saw, for the first time, the terrapin 
or galapago .... We bought them at the rate of six shillings apiece. They were 2 feet 
2 inches in length, 1 foot 10 inches broad, standing 1 foot 2 inches off the ground.” No 
specimens were brought home by this expedition. 
We have no means of ascertaining from recent accounts the present condition of the 
indigenous fauna of these islands. Possibly most of the larger natural-history collec- 
tions possess one or several examples of the Galapagos Tortoise; but the majority of 
specimens are young, or fragmentary, or without any history ; and there will be found 
scarcely one with an indication of the particular island from which it came ! Therefore 
the difficulties encountered by the zoologist who undertakes the study of these Tortoises 
will be easily understood. 
There is no doubt that so singular an animal type as this Land-Tortoise, grown up 
within so well-defined an area as the Galapagos, and repeated with almost identical modi- 
fications of development at the opposite end of the globe, the Mascarenes, would have 
yielded the most valuable material towards solving the question of the genesis of species 
if a complete set of examples from every island had been secured for examination. This 
is now impossible, the causes of their extermination having been at work for so long a 
time. What happened in the Mascarenes has commenced in the Galapagos. From the 
account of the voyage of the 4 Herald ’ there cannot be any doubt that of one race at 
least, that of Charles Island, we shall never see a complete example again ; and with 
regard to the others, it will be most difficult to obtain one of those colossal individuals 
which required many scores of years of undisturbed life to attain to the size attested 
by Delano, Poetee, and Daewin. Under these circumstances I could not hope that 
the scanty material preserved in British collections would be materially increased within 
the next years, or that science would be more benefited if this inquiry, already deferred 
too long, were put off to a later period ; and, however incomplete the following account 
may appear, it will have this effect at least, that these animals, hitherto so much 
neglected in our collections, will be carefully preserved, and that advantage will be 
taken of every opportunity of contributing towards our better knowledge of them. 
In the descriptive portion of this memoir I propose to treat of these Tortoises under 
three heads : — 
1. The Tortoises of the Galapagos Islands. 
2. The recent races of the Tortoises of the Mascarenes. 
3. The extinct races of the Mascarenes. 
